Optical Media for storing data are well known in the art. Typically, the optical media are of the type where data is recorded by modulation of a laser light beam to produce predictable variations in the reflective characteristics of the media and these variations can then be detected and decoded during a read phase. The optical media are generally known as Write Once Read Many or WORM media. It is an excellent media for records having a relatively long life span such as archival records. No records are erased and a version by version record can be kept. The records are on tracks and normally it is necessary to search all the tracks in order to read out desired data. In order to reduce the time required to read out the desired data, it was common to use a directory where directory records are relatively small compared to the associated data records. Even so, directory processing consumes or requires a large amount of programming support. This is true even where the directory area is made separate from the data record area as shown in European Patent Application number 89114885.0 filed Nov. 8, 1989 for Optical Card. This is because the directory can not be re-written. U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,827 addresses this problem and notes that while one could employ a record medium having an optical portion and a magnetic portion respectively, for storing data and directories, such an arrangement greatly increases the cost of the data recorder, and hence, is not desirable. The present invention does not mix optical and magnetic portions on a unified record medium and therefore does not encounter the cost problems inherent in such an arrangement. The present invention does, however, improve directory management and reduces the overall time required to retrieve archival records.